The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-02-09
The Railway Disaster.

experience in New England in loss of
life. In this respect it is only exceeded
in this country by the dreadful acct
dent on the Lake Shore road at Ashta-
bula, Ohio, December 20, 1876, where
the total casualties were seventy-nine
killed and sixty-eight injured. There
were fewer casualties in the shocking
Norwalk bridge disaster in Connecticut
many years ago, and also in the later
terrible accident on the Eastern rail-
road at Revere, Mass. AT Angola, on
the Lake Shore road, December Is,
1868, there was an accident similar to
the one in Hartford, in which twenty
six persons were killed and forty-six
injured.
Considering the magnitude of the
traffic on the Central Vermont in re-
cent years, the road has long been fa-
vored with remarkable immunity
from serious accidents. 1t is stated
that for twenty years previous to the
Woodstock bridge disaster no passenger
had been killed in a passenger train
on this road. To the people in this re-
gion the shocking event of Saturday
morning seems more terrible than if it
had occurred in a distant part of the
country, and it comes with double force
from the facts that the road has been
noted for its careful and efficient man.
agement and its almost general immu-
and that the large list of dead comprises
number of respected citizens of the
New England States, whose sudden and
terrible deaths have plunged whole
communities in grief
When great catastrophe occurs on
sea or land there is at once exhibited
disposition by many persons to fix the
blame upon some one, and too often
with thoughtless regard of the cir
cumstances of the case. 1t is certainly
unjust to indulge in snap judgments
and say that there was a neglect of
duty or lack of proper precaution on
the part of railroad officials or employees.
unless the facts unquestionably war;
rant that conclusion. In the present
case it does not appear that the i'm
mediate cause of the accident was the
result of negligence on the part of the
managers of the road. Whether it was
due to broken rail or to broken
axle, this was hardly preventable by
any vigilance or foresight. If there
were defects in the construction or
material of the rails or journals, that is
matter to be determined by investiga-
ton, when the responsibility may be
put where it belongs.
The railway managers are censured
for heating the cars with stoves and
lighting them with kerosene lamps,
whereby a conflagration was caused.
which added immensely to the horrors
of the disaster; but, as the Boston
Journal pertinently remarks, in this
matter of heating cars the Central Yer
mont managers are no more culpable
than those of otherroads. Nevertheless.
the problem of heating and lighting
cars so as to avoid the least danger
from fire is one that ought to be speedily
solved by human ingenuity. Theories
and experiments go for nothing unless
they are found to have a practical
value. Some devices for heating and
lighting cars are being tried and others
are suggested, but not long since a
scientific journal stated that none have
thus far proved fully successful, and
railway managers hesitate to incur
large expense in equipping trains with
new contrivances until they become
satisfied of their entire practicabilty.
1t is quite unreasonable to expect
that accidents on railways will not
happen in spite of all appliances and
precautions. In view of the many
thousand miles of railways now cover
ing the continent, and the immense
passenger and freight traffic thereon,
it is surprising that, under existing
conditions, there is not a greater num-
Der of disasters. But the efforts of
railway managers must be constantly
directed toward securing even larger
immunity from accidents; if possible.
greater vigilance should be exercised.
and all practicable methods should be
utilized to diminish the perils incident
to travel over their lines. The state
railroad commission will doubtless make
their investigation of the disaster in
Hartford thorough and impartial one,
and their conclusions and suggestions
thereon will be awaited with great
interest.
The Administration.